


What The Old Woman Was Feeding

by AshWinterGray



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: A Will, Caring, Character Death, Child Experimentation, F/M, Family Figure, Grandmother Figure, Living in the Tree House, No One Major, Steve Finds A Friend, Steve Harrington Finds A Purpose, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, tree house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 03:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshWinterGray/pseuds/AshWinterGray
Summary: In 1983, Steve Harrington first noticed his neighbor leave out food just before sunset. The thing was, Steve had grown up with this old woman as his neighbor. Old Minnie Bennett had lived as Steve’s neighbor for as long as Steve could remember. She had an old tree house in her back yard, waiting for the grandkids that would never visit. Mr. Bennett had passed away some years ago, when Steve had still been a child. Mrs. Bennett’s son got into a fight and refused to see her now. At least, that was what the town’s people said.





	What The Old Woman Was Feeding

**Author's Note:**

> Cute Story. Lots of Fluff. Bit of sadness.

            In 1983, Steve Harrington first noticed his neighbor leave out food just before sunset. The thing was, Steve had grown up with this old woman as his neighbor. Old Minnie Bennett had lived as Steve’s neighbor for as long as Steve could remember. She had an old tree house in her back yard, waiting for the grandkids that would never visit. Mr. Bennett had passed away some years ago, when Steve had still been a child. Mrs. Bennett’s son got into a fight and refused to see her now. At least, that was what the town’s people said.

            Now the thing was, Mrs. Bennett was a nice woman who often liked to take care of Steve when his parents weren’t home. Which happened a lot when Steve was a child, and only got worse as he got older. So Steve knew a lot about Mrs. Bennett. Like how she was allergic to animals. It wasn’t deathly allergic or anything, but it was bad enough to make her sick. She told Steve that she would never get a cat or dog because she would be unable to take care of it and herself.

            So it had bother Steve a little to see her feeding something. He worried about her a bit, but not enough to ask about it.

            But that had been 1983, before all the weirdness went down. It was 1985 now. Will Byers had been kidnapped and possessed. There were monsters. His friends were middle schoolers. His girlfriend left him. And he was babysitting a girl with telekinetic powers.

            And his neighbor was still feeding something every night.

            He was locking up his house for the night when he saw Mrs. Bennett walk out with the food. At first, he didn’t think anything of it. But there had been some crazy things going on the last few years. The last thing he wanted was for his elderly neighbor to be feeding Demodogs.

            “Hey Mrs. Bennett,” Steve grinned at his neighbor as he raced across the street. “How are you?”

            “Steve,” Mrs. Bennett smiled. “I’m doing well. What about you? Your house has been quiet recently.”

            “It’s not really my thing anymore,” Steve chuckled sadly. “Things kind of shifted over the last few years.”

            Mrs. Bennett smiled sadly at him as she set the tray of food down on a stump. The stump was about halfway to the house. But it was also halfway to the tree house. Steve eyed it curiously. It wasn’t dog food or any sort of animal food. It was a meal. Like, a meal for another person.

            “Don’t worry about it, Steve,” she smiled gently and began to tug him towards the house. “Just an odd habit I picked up.”

            “May I ask why?” Steve questioned as she led him inside.

            “Everyone needs care, Steve,” she stated simply. “Especially the homeless.” Then she sat him at the table and made him a plate of food. “Now eat. You’re skinny enough as it is.”

            Steve dropped it. For that day. If there was one thing Steve knew about Mrs. Bennett, it was that she was stubborn. More than stubborn. Actually, she was more stubborn than Nancy Wheeler, and that was saying something. So Steve ate the food and went on with his night.

\-----------------------------

            Four months later saw Steve spending his time with Mrs. Bennett. She helped him get a job at Scoops Ahoy! for the summer. She had helped him apply to several colleges. And she was helping him with his grades too. In return, Steve helped her with jobs around her house and listened to her stories. He used to listen to her stories all the time when she was younger. The stories of her life, and even a few she had to have made up. Mrs. Bennett was the cool grandmother Steve never got to meet from his own parents. And Steve’s friend life soon went from nerdy middle schoolers to nerdy middle schoolers and an awesome old lady.

            The food on the tray continued, but Steve had just stopped questioning it. Even if he didn’t believe her story about homeless people.

            But Mrs. Bennett was old. Steve knew that. And when the day came, Steve couldn’t say he was surprised.

            “Mrs. Bennett!” Steve called into the house after having been knocking for ten minutes. The darned woman never locked her doors. “Mrs. Bennett! It’s Steve!”

            She didn’t respond, but then again, she liked to have her music on in the morning. This wasn’t the first time Steve would have walked in to see Mrs. Bennett dancing around her bedroom with the music on. He joined her sometimes, prancing her around the room. He wished he could have her confidence. The way she still treated herself as if she were queen of the world and no one could touch her without her consent.

            Shaking the thought with a chuckle, he brought the tray in from outside and cleaned it while he waited for her. It was after he had finished cleaning and organizing the kitchen that he wandered upstairs in confusion. There was no music. He knocked on her door, calling her name gently, then a little louder.

            He knew what happened the moment she opened the door.

            He gripped her cold, lifeless hand as he cried at the loss of his friend. Sobbing his grief that no one would share. Because the one person who would have understood was the one who had just left. He called Hopper next, not sure who else to call about this situation.

            Steve was still brushing away his tears as they took her body away for examination. Just to make sure it wasn’t something bad she died of. But even the people Hopper called knew she had died of old age. Steve went to Hopper and handed him Mrs. Bennett’s will.

            “She’s got a son,” Steve told Hopper. “They haven’t spoke in a while, and even I can remember the way he left. I’m not sure if he’ll care about her passing, but he’ll probably care about what she left him.”

            Hopper nodded, patted Steve on the back, and set off to get back to work. Steve mourned alone that day, calling out of work for the first time since Mrs. Bennett got him the job.

            He wasn’t sure what possessed him to do it that night, but Steve also knew that it had been important to Mrs. Bennett. So he made food in his home, grabbed the dumb tray from Mrs. Bennett’s house, and left it out. He stood there, watching for a bit. Staring at the woods as if he expected something to jump out. Then he turned to leave.

            A crack of a twig had him whipping around a bit too fast. He grappled for a bat that wasn’t there. There was a girl, maybe his age, reaching for the food and staring at him wide eyed. The next thing Steve knew, she was running up ladder of the tree house and slamming the door closed. It took Steve a moment for his brain to process what his eyes had taken in. But while his brain was short circuiting and trying to catch up, the rest of him was moving.

            “Hey,” he knocked gently on the tree house door. He had no idea how he got up there, especially with the tray in his hand. “I, uh, I brought you some food.”

            No response.

            “I don’t know if you saw, but Mrs. Bennett died last night,” Steve tried.

            “Gone?” a voice whispered.

            “Yeah,” Steve nodded, moving his hand to brush away a few tears. “She’s gone. She fell asleep and just didn’t wake up.”

            “Hurt?”

            “No,” Steve shook his head. “Just old and tired. That’s what happens when you get to be like Mrs. Bennett.” Steve paused, waiting for a response. “But, uh, I brought food. I don’t know if you want it.”

            The door opened slowly, and the face of the girl peeked out. Her hair was long and dirty, about to the small of her back and extremely greasy. Some dirt caked into it. Her face and body, or what Steve could see of it, was caked in layers of dirt too. And she was wearing a jacket over a hospital gown. There was a pillow and several blankets in the tree, but nothing else.

            And she had a very familiar looking tattoo on her wrist.

            “Five,” Steve read softly as he glanced down at her wrist.

            She tensed, terrified as she clutched her wrist close and stuck out her other hand. Steve quickly put the food down and raised both hands in surrender.

            “It’s okay,” Steve whispered. “I won’t hurt you. I swear. I just want to help.”

            “Help?” Five asked timidly. “What is help?”

            “Like Mrs. Bennett,” Steve grinned. “She helped you. She gave you food. A jacket. A place to sleep. That is helping. Caring too.”

            “Helping and caring,” she mumbled.

            She had to be around his age, maybe a year older of younger. And she was still scared, though from what Dustin had said, this was how El had first reacted too.

            “Do you want to come inside the house,” Steve pointed at where they could just barely see his own house. “It’s nicer. You can get clean.”

            Five shook her head frantically, her eyes wide. “The walls have ears.”

            That was true too. And now he understood why Mrs. Bennett had done things the way she had. Because the walls did have ears. One slip up and Five could have gone back to Hawkins lab. He wondered how long she had been living in the old tree house. Judging by how small the hospital gown was, it had been a while.

            “Here,” Steve pressed the food forward. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

            Five was clearly unsure what to make of Steve, but she nodded and watched Steve close the door. Steve quickly dashed back to his house, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt before rushing back to her. She was using her hands to eat when he returned, and Steve chuckled a bit.

            “Here,” he smiled and picked up the fork and knife to cut the chicken he had made. “You use this,” he held up the fork, “to eat food so your hands don’t make the food dirty.”

            Five watched Steve demonstrate how to use the fork and knife to eat the food before trying to copy him. He smiled as he placed the clothes in front of her while she ate. She eyed them, clearly unsure.

            “They’re soft,” he stated gently, rubbing the fabric between his hands. “Really soft. They’ll feel better than what you are wearing.”

            She touched them and smiled a bit. “Thank you.”

            “I’ll bring more food tomorrow, if I can,” he promised.

            Five nodded, like she wasn’t expecting Steve to do much else for her.

            “I’m Steve, by the way,” he smiled at her.

            “Five,” she stated.

            And Steve smiled at her before he left the tree house and returned home. There was a mixture of relief and giddiness at the discovery Steve had made.

\--------------------------------

            Steve was cleaning the house the next day, having brought Five breakfast and taking the old tray away. She was wearing the clothes Steve brought her, and he had taken the hospital gown back to his own house to be cleaned. He wasn’t sure why he was keeping it, but he threw it in his own washing machine before returning to Mrs. Bennett’s house. He had just finished cleaning the downstairs bathroom when the front door was thrown open.

            “I forgot how much I hated this house,” a voice grumbled.

            Steve stepped out of the bathroom to be greeted with Mrs. Bennett’s son, Hopper, and a couple of lawyers.

            “Steve,” Hopper greeted. “How are you doing?”

            “Been better,” Steve shrugged. “Just kind of distracting myself.”

            “Mr. Bennett,” Hopper turned to Mrs. Bennett’s son. “This is Steve Harrington. He was your mother’s neighbor and a friend of hers up until she passed. He’s been taking care of the house for some time too.”

            Steve nodded at him, already knowing his type. Offering a hand in greeting would have been pointless. He sneered at Steve anyways and started walking about the house. He stopped at the backdoor and glowered at the yard.

            “That tree house will be the first to go,” Mr. Bennett scowled and turned to search the rest of the house. “At least the house is spotless.”

            Steve had felt his blood go cold. But then again, why would Mr. Bennett care if his mother had been housing a girl in her old tree house? Of course he wouldn’t. He’d have to figure out how to get Five out of there. Maybe he could tell Hopper. But he hardly had Five’s trust. They’d just talked.

            “If you are done, Mr. Bennett,” one of the lawyer’s sighed. Clearly not Mr. Bennett’s lawyer. “Can we please get on with it? We have things to do.”

            “Fine,” Mr. Bennett scoffed and moved to sit in the old arm chair.

            “Why don’t you go clean upstairs,” Hopper motioned to Steve, giving him the out he needed.

            Steve nodded and went upstairs as the lawyer cracked open the will. He couldn’t bring himself to go into Mrs. Bennett’s room. Not yet. So he wondered into one of the spare bedrooms and prepared to start cleaning it. He got lost in his work, not really caring about the time, but a shout from downstairs made Steve glance at the clock as he finished the spare bedroom by stripping the sheets.

            He wasn’t even aware of the footsteps until the door was thrown open and he was being shoved against a wall.

            “What did you do?” the man demanded. “How dare you change my mother’s will!”

            “What?” Steve questioned.

            He couldn’t say much else though. There was a hand around his neck, squeezing tight. Steve couldn’t breathe. There was shouting, but the guy had a death grip on Steve’s throat. He was seeing spots as he clawed at the man’s hand, mouth gapping for air that wouldn’t come. Then the grip slackened, and Steve felt to the ground with a desperate grasp for air. Someone grabbed him, and Steve tried to get back.

            “Steve!” Hopper shouted at him. “Steve! It’s me!”

            Steve quit struggling and let himself fall into Hopper’s embrace as he gasped for air. He was dizzy, and his throat burned, and his lungs throbbed.

            “What just happened,” Steve wheezed out.

            They were down stairs a few minutes later, and Steve was listening wide-eyed as the will was reread. Mrs. Bennett had given her grandchildren enough money for college. Had given her son just a bit of money. But everything else had been given to Steve on the condition that he continue her food tradition. And Steve had to be dreaming because he was suddenly very rich, owned two houses (sort of) and Mrs. Bennett had thought of everything.

            She just hadn’t expected Steve to find Five on his own.

            “You okay kid,” Hopper asked as Officer’s Powell and Callahan came and took Mr. Bennett away.

            “Yeah,” Steve nodded, rubbing at his bruising neck a bit. “Yeah. I’m fine. I think.”

            “You think?” Hopper frowned at him.

            “It’s just-” Steve stopped for a moment. “I can understand her giving me the house. She loved this place. It was her pride and joy, and we both knew her son would just get rid of it. But the money? Her life savings. I don’t understand.” He finally looked Hopper in the eyes. “Why would she do that?”

            Hopper sighed a bit, puzzling over that question. “Probably because you cared. When no one else sent her so much as a letter, you were there.”

            Possibly. Or it could be Five.

\--------------------------------

            Steve had spent the last two weeks using his time to clean-up and box up things from Mrs. Bennett’s house. With school drawing to a close and graduation coming up, Steve didn’t have as much time as he would like. He spent most of his days in Mrs. Bennett’s house though. He was honestly debating just moving out of his parent’s house and into Mrs. Bennett’s.

            He was trying to get through to Five too. Just food and late night talks. She refused to talk during the day.

            “You have no space,” Steve hummed as they sat in the tree house. “Literally. Maybe I should expand the tree house.”

            “Expand?” Five ask.

            “Make bigger,” Steve exclaimed.

            “Expand,” Five stated back.

            She liked it when Steve read to her. He did that at night sometimes. It could be his homework, a book, or even just the food label. Steve figured that if she had been taught, she would have been a book worm. So he taught her words and numbers and anything else she needed to know.

            Two more weeks later and Steve had graduated. He had moved out all of Mrs. Bennett’s stuff and gave her son some things he figured he should. He didn’t press charges. Didn’t feel the need. He started to expand the tree house, for Five’s sake. Which meant he did a lot of wood work that took time, patience, and practice. It also meant that he hadn’t seen the kids in a few weeks. So of course they would turn up.

            “Hi Steve!”

            Steve nearly threw the saw he was using. Which, of course, made the six kids flinch back violently.

            “Don’t scare me like that,” Steve scolded Dustin. “What are you doing here?”

            “You’ve been avoiding us,” Max stated, crossing her arms. “We want to know why.”

            Had he? The confusion must have shown on his face because now the kids were looking confused.

            “I haven’t been avoiding you guys,” Steve stated, still trying to figure out how they got that impression.

            “You haven’t even talked to us in five weeks,” Mike shot back. “You’ve been here.”

            And Steve winced at that. Mrs. Bennett had died five weeks ago. Then he had found Five. And finals came up.

            “Busy,” Steve mumbled with a dejected sigh.

            “Mourning,” El stated, and Steve just sort of nodded.

            “And other things.”

            He glanced to the tree house where Five was hiding. He wasn’t sure if she was listening or not, but the kids were here.

            “You said Eight was your sister, right?” Steve asked El.

            “Yes.”

            “Do you remember anyone else?”

            El frowned but shook her head. With a sigh, Steve motioned them forward. He climbed the rope later first and knocked on the door.

            “Would you like to meet your sister?” he asked Five.

            El, despite Five’s disgusting state, hugged Five like a life line. Five hugged back as the other five kids stared in awe. It didn’t take Steve long to explain.

            “She doesn’t trust houses,” Steve motioned to Mrs. Bennett’s house. “Figured I’d expand the tree house or something for her.”

            “We should tell Hopper and Mom,” Will suggested. “And then we can help with the tree house. Though I’m pretty bad at hammering.”

            Steve chuckled but agreed.

\------------------------------

            Hopper, Jonathan, and the boy’s, and Max all agree to help build the tree house. Joyce, Nancy, and El decide they will help with the tree house, but Five’s well-being is their first priority. They manage to convince her to come outside and they use an old tub to get her clean hidden in the woods. Her skin is pale, but she’s a little healthier than they expected. Mrs. Bennett did good. The girls also scrubbed down what they had of the tree house and taught her about several things about her body and how to better manage herself.

            She still doesn’t like leaving the tree house. But she isn’t so alone now. She has her sister and her friends, and that is enough for Steve. Now if only he could get the tree house done.

            He ends up visiting a few carpenters, getting tips and wood to help expand the tree house. A nice woman he meets offers to make cushions for couches if he brings the chairs by. He brings by a few. The tree house is definitely bigger now, with a small upstairs, a living room, and even a fire place that a guy showed him how to make and install.

            “Home,” Five smiled at him as she tried the couch he made her.

            “Yeah,” Steve smiled. “Home.”

            He needed to make her a bookcase. She was starting to read a lot and would need a way to pass the time. But for now, he sat on the newly made couch beside her and read the next chapter of _The Two Towers_.

\----------------------------

            He turned down the colleges, wanting to take a gap year. He couldn’t leave Five alone, so Steve had started passing the time by carving wood furniture. Which turned out to be a popular thing because Mrs. Sinclair bought one from him and the news spread. He quit the ice cream shop because he needed more time to make the furniture.

            He’d just finished his last carving, gotten Five food, read her another chapter, and was about to settle down for the night when the door was literally kicked open. Steve wasn’t sure what to make of the situation when people in masks suddenly showed up. But some buff guy manhandled him into a chair. A girl tied him up while a second guy held a gun to his head.

            “Where is she,” a second girl demanded.

            She was shorter than the others, but she was also, clearly, in charge.

            “What are you talking about?” Steve tried.

            The girl gave a nod and the buff man delivered a swift punch to Steve’s face. All Steve could think was that this was a thing now. People beating him up once a year. He wondered who would do it next year. With his luck, probably Tommy.

            “Where is she,” the girl demanded again.     

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Steve gritted out around the pain in his jaw.

            His head was jerked back this time, and something was shoved down his throat. They were drugging him. The realization hit him like a wave of terror and Steve gasped out, trying to spit the drug back up. He didn’t know what Five’s power was. Had refused to ask her, but he hoped it was telepathy in that moment as he desperately told her to run in his mind.

            “Don’t make me ask again,” the girl pressed.

            “What are you talking about?” Steve tried once more.

            He screamed around a gag as the buff guy broke his arm. Then there was alcohol being shoved down his throat.

            “Where. Is. She?”

            “I. Don’t. Know.”

            The guy with the gun finally decided to use it and shot Steve’s thigh. Pain and drugs were not a good mix. But he told Joyce once, after the Billy and tunnel incident, that he would die for those kids. And that included El and Five. So he took it. He took it until he blacked out. He knew there would be more pain later.

            Except, he woke up to Joyce’s soothing hands combing through his hair as he lay on Mrs. Bennett’s bed. He didn’t really come into this room much anymore. Not since she died, but when he asked, Joyce explained that his blood was all over the other guest room, and this room had been the closest.

            Then Five walked into the room.

            Turns out, the people the other night (three nights ago) had been Eight and her gang. El had _mentioned_ that she had found Five and Eight had looked into it. El hadn’t had the chance to talk to Eight since that time. So when she fell asleep and found Eight torturing Steve, she more than panicked and called a desperate code red. Hopper and El had gotten there first to find Five standing over the passed-out bodies of the others and cradling Steve in her arms.

            She was terrified.

            Five did not want to talk to Eight when the other came to, and El had screamed at Eight for hours. According to the kids at least. Steve broke the tension by nudging El with his good arm and saying “awe, I didn’t know you cared” with a teasing smile. El smiled back and curled into Steve’s chest. It made Steve’s chest swell in a funny way, but he wrapped his good arm around El.

            A doctor friend of Hopper’s came by and checked him over, no questions asked. He’d been over several times since to check on Steve’s progress.

            “House is nice,” Five mumbled as she ran her hand over the cover of Mrs. Bennett’s bed. Because no one would let Steve switch rooms. “Better than tree house.”

            “I guess,” Steve shrugged and winced a bit.

            “Hopper says it is safe,” Five whispered as she clutched the cover.

            “I believe so,” and Steve paused as he realized what this was. “Five, you can stay in the house if you want.”

            And the way her eyes lit up made Steve smile.

            That was also the day Steve decided to call the house ‘his”. The room he was in would always be Mrs. Bennett’s room. But the house was his now. Would always be his house. His and Five’s.


End file.
